3230
« on: January 30, 2014, 07:16:25 AM »
Just a word of warning if thinking of buying from abroad, UK Customs are ruthless at the moment and I have been stung quite a few times recently.
If they grab you (almost certain nowadays) you will get charged, at the very least, VAT and a customs handling charge of approx £12 (depends on carrier) so you will end up paying closer to the UK price. I have even had import duty slapped on some things and that brought the total to over 30% above the orig cost. It was still worth it in that case as the cheapest I could buy in the UK was more than double, but it sure pi$$ed me off.
You ,could of course try and get the sender to make a false customs declaration but that has its drawbacks as well. First is if you get caught then the seller as well as you, could end up in trouble and second your package can not be insured for its value so if its lost someone will have to take the hit, most likely you.
I got something from Hong Kong recently and the seller put a customs declaration of $20 without me asking him to. What happened however was customs opened it up, looked at the paperwork, looked at the sellers website and charged me VAT etc on the web prices, kind of annoyed me as I had actually paid a discounted price. I complained and they said no problem, just appeal and you might get it sorted out but they would take a dim view of the original false customs declaration even though I hadnt asked for that.
I hate that it has ended up this way but it would seem the UK Government are just trying to make sure we get ripped off whether we buy from the UK or abroad.
Hood